Warriors and Assassins
by Madylyne Hatter
Summary: Madyle regrets falling asleep in her fathers war council when he sends her to be with some crazy war goddess! What she finds in the lands of Lady Xena might scare Madyle and her friends away! But duty and courage force her to stay and defeat Onevn and their deadly army!


Chapter 1: Sir James and Madyle

My head drooped down. Subconsciously, I jerked it back up to keep my head from falling flat on the table. I was so bored.

My father, King James, was sitting in a council of war with his Captain and Lieutenants, and he dragged me along with.

King James was a tall, muscular man. He had a beard that was graying with age, and white silver hair in which you could see flecs of black from his younger days. He stood tall and reagal even in the worst of situations. He never gave up on something he stood for, which in some cases could be considered scary, and in others, a nuisance.

Father was notorious for his vast army and gilded castle. He is one of the finer kings, and ruled like a strategist which in turn, turned out well for our people.

I, Madyle, am the youngest of three, but while my sisters are off getting married and courting and whatnot, I'm stuck bumming around the castle with the old men and even older council members. What joy.

I have subdued red hair which frized when I brushed out the waves. I had bright, ice blue eyes that changed shade depending on what I was doing. I was smart...sometimes, but I generally just did my school work and didn't complain about it.

"I say we move our forces…" I tried zoning back into the conversation but was lost the first sentence in so I just went back to dozing off.

Something loud and hard slammed down on the table, making my hand slide out from underneath my head, and allowing me the pleasure of hitting the hard table.

"Ouch!" I cursed under my breath. I sat up, rubbed the sore spot, and looked around. Every one of the old guys had their beady little eyes on me. Including my father.

Father had his no-nonsense look on, which made me feel the tiniest bit guilty for falling asleep. Then I wasn't so guilty, because I had stayed up late last the night before talking to my own personal advisor and my other friends from down in the village.

King James sighed and scrubbed his hand across his face before saying to me, "Madyle, wait for me in your room." Which in turn meant I was going to be grounded like every other teenager in this kingdom. It was in fair of him to think anyone could stay awake in such meetings! Yet, he didn't get mad when Old Bacchus snored!

I picked up my skirts, red-faced, and hurried out of the room giving a quick curtsy before closing the door. The guards looked at me and nodded before going back to staring at the far wall. I was so embarrassed, and normally I didn't even care, but something in my gut told me I was going to regret falling asleep this time.

"You're going to send me where?" I cried, my face aghast.

My father didn't look even the least bit sorry about the fact that he was sending me to some crazy war goddess.

Lady Xena was the queen of war. Her guards could be hired out to serve in any war of your choosing, since peace was a rare and far between thing. I knew my father had built up an alliance with them, yet I hadn't realized it really was an alliance and not a peace treaty like all the others.

"Ive already talked with Lady Xena, she promised to take good care of you."

I blinked back big tears. "But Dad! I can't go there! What about my school work? And my friends! I can't leave without Charli! She wouldn't know who to advise without me!" Charli was my advisor/best friend in the whole wide world.

My dad turned his back to me and moved to walk away from me. He stopped when I got off my bed and grabbed onto his hand.

"Charli as well as a few personal guards will be accompanying you to the border where Lady Xena's people will be waiting. Your school work, as well as your friends, will still be here when you get back in a year." He turned away again, signaling the end of the conversation.

I sighed. There was no use arguing, since I knew I was going to have to go no matter what I said.

"Just don't send me with some old guys. At least give Charli someone she can fawn over.." I said hopefully. It was worth a try. After all, I had seen some of those guards training. And boy, were they some good looking hunk of human.

The king turned around and raised an eyebrow before saying, "I'll see what I can do."

That night, Charli slipped into my room with a scroll clutched in her hand. When she drew near I could see her hazel eyes were clouded with worry.

"Oh boy Madyle! You sure did us in this time!" She said. She handed me the scroll that had been bent in and turned damp from her sweat. I opened it and read the first few lines before bursting into tears and throwing the scroll across the room.

He wanted me to "grow up" and "do something with my life". How rude! Just because I sleep in till noon every day doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything with my life!

Well that wasn't exactly what he said, but it was close enough! I guessed I was just another human to pawn off for training.

Charli rolled her eyes and went over and picked up the scroll, rolling it back up and setting it on my dresser. "You're being over dramatic. You didn't even read the part where he said we were supposed to be her captain's understudy and lead a contingent of soldiers." She said flippantly, fixing her hair short, dark hair in the mirror.

I stopped crying. "WHAT?" I paused. How many people was that? Lady Xena had better not put me on the front lines, or those poor people would be killed. I sat and thought. I was pretty sure I could take care of maybe twenty men. After that, things got sketchy.

I mean, I was pretty good with a sword. It was probably the only skill I excelled at, but I was no where near expert like Sgt. Robberts. He was the best swordsman in the kingdom.

Charli laughed. "Yeah it says in the third paragraph, pretty cool huh?"

I threw a pillow at her. "No, this is not cool! Those poor guys are gonna get killed!" I yelped.

Charli just shook her head. "At least it'll give you and incentive to actually work instead of wasting your brains like usual." She looked at me and gave me her sneaky grin. "and can I even mention the hot guys we might meet?"

I face palmed. Leave it to her to think of that. I doubted it. Whenever someone says soldiers, I instantly thought of mid-twenty year olds, which were definitely out of Charli and my's league. Instead of feeding her craziness, I said instead, "when do we leave?"

Charli shrugged and said, "In two days. That gives us a week to be to the border and a week to get the camp that we're gonna be working and overseeing."

I rolled my eyes. Figures. "Well get me my bag and we'll pack in the morning for me, and then we'll pack for you ok? This is gonna be a long trip."

Two days later, I said farewell to the castle that I had grown up in and set out with five guards and Charli, as well as a cart with all of our food and other supplies, like my bags, Charli's, and extra swords just in case.

"Bye Mama!" I cried waving behind me to my mother and father. "I love you!" I yelled. I watched her wipe big tears from her eyes as me and my men left.

Charli and I talked nonstop for the first three days, our plan was to not acknowledge the guards. It made it almost like i was going to visit my cousins in the country. And then after the three days, the weather turned for the worst, and the road got rocky.

We were traveling through mountainous terrain, with falling rocks and landslides. If that weren't bad enough, it started to rain. At first it was just a refreshing drizzle, and soon it turned into a hard, bone-chilling, cold rain. I was soaked in a few minutes.

My horse shivered underneath me and kept slipping. Finally I turned to the guard next to me and asked, " Can we stop? My horse is too cold to go an in this harsh of conditions." I was surprised when I got an answer.

"Let's go a bit farther, and stop at those trees up there." He pointed up ahead. I hadn't been watching up ahead, but true to his word there was a grove of trees not two hundred yards ahead.

I nodded my head quickly in response; my teeth chattered in response to the thought of getting warm again. I urged my horse forward.

I was amazed at how quickly the guards could throw together a tent and enchant it to make it water proof. And build a fire while making dinner. Charli and I just sort of sat there looking stupid while everyone busied themselves with something.

When the fire was blazing hot and I was warm again, with a change of dress and socks. I laid my wet clothes, as well as Charli's over a low hanging tree branch near the fire to let them dry off. The rain had let up marginally , but the thick branches of the tree made it seem like it had stopped completely and for that im sure we were all grateful.

After dinner, I finally took a chance to evaluate my fathers choice of men. I saw a lot of older men, a familiar faces, and a fresh younger looking boy. Sergeant Robberts had accompanied us and I had not noticed!

"Hello Sgt. Robberts! I hadn't noticed you!" I said happily. Charli looked up from her mending of a tear I had gotten in on of my skirts.

"Hello!" She said happily, before going back to her work.

Sgt. Robberts smiled at me from across the fire. He had a fatherly type demeanor with a graying beard and hair he had wrinkles around his eyes, signs of many years of laughter. Which wouldn't surprise me seeing as he was almost part of the family. He was the one that gave me my first sword, against Mother's wishes.

"Hello Princess, I was waiting to see when you'd finally notice me. You had quite the airs going on there for a little bit." My face turned pink when he mentioned Charli and my's silly attitude.

Sgt. Robberts just laughed and continued to talk. "I see you've sure mad you're father upset. Seeing as he's sending you to the War Goddess Xena."

I grimaced. "I fell asleep during on of his meetings."

"That was the fifth time." Charli added smirking at me. I glared at her before continuing.

"His meetings are boring. Its just him and a bunch of old people. And Old Baccus sleeps in there as well! I dont see why he got mad at me!" I said, glancing at the boy sitting next to Sgt. Robberts.

By no means was he any good for Charli's standards. He had a lean built look, with dark yellow hazel eyes. He had a thick dark chestnut colored hair. He was cute in a scoutish way. His eyes took in everything around us, I had no doubt that he was checking for intruders, as well as checking on the weather and the horses all while sitting down. He made me a bit wary with one look at him.

I nudged Charli. She looked at me. I ever so slightly inclined my head towards the dark haired boy. She eyed him, and then shrugged, as if to say, Eh, he's Ok.

"Hey Ryan, they're talking about you." Sgt. Robberts said, to the boy next to him. My head snapped up.

"No we weren't!" I said flustered. I hoped they didn't notice my burning face.

"Oh? It looked like it." The boy, Ryan, said. He had a nice semi-deep timbre. I recognized him as the one who had ridden next to me, that I had spoken to.

"No! I was talking about.." My eyes scanned the area for anything remotely close to interesting, "That tree behind you!" I said after two seconds. Ryan raised and eyebrow, while Sgt. Robberts tried to muffle his laughter. "It looked like a human!" I said. I stopped. That tree was moving. It was a human!

My eyes widened. "Watch out!" I shrieked when the human raised a sword. Ryan and the Sgt. Robberts dove out of the way. I grabbed Charli's hand and pulled her away from the fire and ran into the dark. When we had ran far enough, nearly twisting my ankle many times from the rocks, we stopped and laid against the mountain in the dark either one of us barely daring to breathing. I could feel Charli shivering in the cold, and only then did I realize it was still raining.

"Charli," I whispered after a few moments. "Who were they?" I asked.

In the dark gloom I could hardly see her head shake. "No," she whispered back, " I have no clue, let's just wait here for a little bit..hopefully one of the guards will come and get us." She said moving closer to me. I doubted it. In my fear, even I had realized the other three guards were gone.

We stayed in the dark getting wetter and wetter by the minute until we heard the sound of racing horses coming form the opposite direction. I sat up peering into the dark looking for some sign of the oncoming sound. I could see none until a team of riders pulled up and surrounded Charli and I. I couldn't see much past the gloom of night.

"State your name and Kingdom of region." A lady said in a commanding tone. I didn't like it. She obviously didn't know who I was.

" My name is Princess Madyle Hatter; My Father is King James." I said as bravely as I could. gripped Charli's hand in my own. She squeezed back. I took a deep breath to keep my self from shaking too much. "And this is Charli Arlbaster my personal advisor."

From somewhere else I heard a match being struck and suddenly there was light all around me. From the direction the female voice came from a beautiful woman appeared.

She had medium long chestnut heair that fell in waves around her face. She had large looking warm brown eyes that were framed with thick lashes. I suddenly felt incomparable seeing as how my red hair was a mess and I was wet and wearing a dress, while she was wearing breeches and a tunic under her chainmail shirt and a vibrant red cloak. She reeked of authority and skill on the battle field.

"You're Madyle?" She approached me. "Where is the rest of your men!"

I paused and pointed back behind me. Who was this?

The beautiful lady shouted orders to her men and they all pounded away except for one. He got down and came into the remaining light.

"Excuse me, Princess, Charli," he bowed to each of us. "I am Zeyna, and this is her Ladyship Xena." he pointed to the proud woman behind him.

"We came looking for you, after we chased Onevn out of our borders and they came straight into your mountains. I am glad we came or you would have been dead." Lady Xena said putting her am around my shoulder and guiding me to her hose. Zeyna did the same to Charli.

"Wait!" I cried, "you have to save Sgt. Robberts, and that boy, Ryan!"

Lady Xena cooed softly to me, putting a warm woolen cloak around my shoulders. "My men are seeing to the matter. We must be far from here by morning. Let us go."

They put us on their horses and we sped off into the night leaving Sgt. Robberts, Ryan, as well as my other dead guards behind


End file.
